More To Socialists, On Supporting Biden

Your back is against the wall when it is literally against the wall, when they start killing you to silence you. Before then, you have choices.

In 1932, the German left could have unified against the Nazis and outvoted them. But the Communists (KPD) 1932 thought they could outwait Hitler and the Social Democrats (SPD) didn't want to form a coalition with the KPD. The very first antifa, Antifaschistische Aktion, was founded as a unified response to the Nazis. It did not gain enough support to be effective.

Sanders, like any old socialist, is aware of this history. This is why he advocates staking out the strongest possible left position and ”Then together, standing united, we will go forward to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous President in modern American history and we will fight to elect strong progressives at every level of government from Congress to the school board.”

No, I do not love Joe Biden. No, I do not like his record. Yes, he is still 1,000 times better than Trump. Joe Biden wouldn't have dismantled Obama's epidemic response infrastructure response. Nor would have have kidnapped children on the southern border. Nor defended Nazis as "very fine people."

I don't understand the thinking here. There is a clear lesser, much lesser, evil than the one that is endangering your lives. Why not choose it?

Sanders Concedes

“I will stay on the ballot in all the main states and will continue to gather ballots while Vice President Biden will be the nominee. We must continue working to assemble as many delegates as possible at the Democratic convention, where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party's platform and other functions. Then together, standing united, we will go forward to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous President in modern American history and we will fight to elect strong progressives at every level of government from Congress to the school board.” – Sen. Bernard Sanders, video.

To Sanders supporters who are tempted to sit this one out: it is time for a strategic retreat, not a suicidal last charge. Besides, do you really want to find out who Trump will pick to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

If you still cannot bring yourself to vote for Biden, pick a Senate campaign you can support, or just a local politician. As Sanders reminds us, there are plenty of places to fight for progressive values.

I wish people would stop expecting Trump to straighten up and fly right and work on stopping his depredations

In the latest outrage of the Trump administration, “President Trump has removed the chairman of the federal panel Congress created to oversee his administration's management of the $2 trillion stimulus package.” The removed inspect was Glenn Fine, who has been an inspector general since 1999. He has been replaced with Trump appointee Sean O’Donnell.

I wish people would stop expecting Trump to straighten up and fly right and work on stopping his depredations.

Taney Court II: In Wisconsin, Yet Again the Law is the Loser

The US Supreme Court handed down a decision which blocks the extension of the absentee ballot deadline in today's Wisconsin election. In conjunction with the decision of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which refused to allow the rescheduling of the election, the result is that voters must turn out physically and expose themselves to COVID-19 or accept that the right-wing crank judge Daniel Kelly remain on the state's Supreme Court.

As @NeinQuarterly observes: “Give me liberty. Or give me death. Or, heck, just come to Wisconsin. Where on election day you can have both.”

They Intend To Wreck The US Health Care System And Then Ration Health Care

We now have multiple reports that US Customs is confiscating shipments of medical personal protective equipment and sequestering them. Reportedly masks en route to other countries have been confiscated, prompting protests. There is a huge amount of profiteering going and, and still states have to beg for supplies. To get around this, Massachusetts more-or-less smuggled a shipment of masks into the state. People of color are dying at higher rates than white people due to poorer deliver of medical care. Meanwhile, the Administration continues to press its meritless lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act. If it succeeds tens of millions will lose access to health care

Without protective equipment health care systems will be hit, as doctors, nurses, and support personnel fall ill and die. This will create further chaos in the system. In the Republican-dominated states, where medical personnel will likely be given access to protective equipment by our political leaders, it will be like a droplet in the sea. Those states took precautions too late, and the system will be overwhelmed by the numbers of the sick.

Someone, several someones, somewhere, has a vision of a purified America without black or brown people, without weakness or illness and so they intend to wreck the US health care system and then ration health care. This is the culmination of a 75-year program of rationing health care in the USA. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was a modest limited reversal of this program and look how much opposition has been raised to it!

CORRUPTION! and COVID-19: My Snark of the Day

George Takei: “Jared Kushner isn’t qualified to run a lemonade stand, let alone tell governors how to manage critical supply chains.”

Me: “Competent to hold the bag, though, while Mnuchin fills it.” - Tweet

And I don't know if it's actually those two, though it is likely enough. But that's what's happening; profiteering from withholding life-preserving medical equipment from COVID-19 patients. See, for instance, Josh Marshall to this point.

Elizabeth Warren, where are you when we need you?

I Cough on Jared Kushner

I see so much written as though the shortage of tests and ventilators was a natural disaster, something that just happened. This is not true. This deadly failure is the result of inaction by Donald Trump and his criminal family.

Whenever we hear of triage, of patients denied care because of a lack of ventilators, of doctors and nurses sick because they lack gloves and masks and gowns, remember: This is the work of Donald Trump and his family.